Merlin Entertainments Share News (MERL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Anglo American, up 1.4%. The miner said it has struck a deal to sell its niobium and phosphates businesses to China Molybdenum for a total cash consideration of USD1.50 billion. The phosphates business is based in Brazil and consists of a mine, beneficiation plant, two chemical complexes and two further mineral deposits, whilst the niobium business consists of one mine and three processing facilities, two non-operating mines, two further mineral deposits, and sales and marketing operations in the UK and Singapore.

Taylor Wimpey, up 0.9%. The housebuilder signalled further growth in profit in 2016 as customer demand for its homes and good access to mortgages drives strong sales rates, whilst noting the upcoming UK referendum on EU membership is not hurting trading. Taylor said in the first four months of 2016 customer demand was up 14% in comparison to the same period last year, whilst average private net reservation rates were 0.80 sales per outlet per week from 0.76 the previous year. Taylor Wimpey said its total order book currently stands at 8,811 homes, up from 8,200 homes, excluding legal completions, and the housebuilder said it has increased the total order book value by 17% to GBP2.17 billion from GBP1.86 billion the previous year.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Lloyds Banking Group, down 4.1%. The lender said its first-quarter pretax profit fell by almost half, hit by market volatility and the cost of redeeming expensive debt with the aim of boosting interest margins. Pretax profit fell to GBP654 million in the three months ended March 31, Lloyds said in a statement, from GBP1.21 billion the corresponding quarter a year earlier. Underlying profit, which excludes costs related to redeeming the so-called enhanced capital notes and market volatility, fell by 5.7% to GBP2.05 billion.

Ex-dividend stocks - ITV, down 6.0%, Legal & General Group, down 5.9%, and Merlin Entertainments, down 3.4%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Weir Group, up 5.2%. The industrial valve and pumps makers aid trading in the first quarter was slightly ahead of its expectations, boosted by cost cutting and a resilient performance from its minerals arm. The company said its like-for-like order input in the first quarter was down 22% year-on-year, with revenue declining by a broadly similar amount. Revenue in the Minerals division, however, was stable on a like-for-like basis in the quarter, with input falling 5.0% but original equipment input better than anticipated. As a result of the better-than-anticipated outcome for the first quarter, Chief Executive Keith Cochrane said Weir said first profit should be slightly ahead of market expectations.

Tullow Oil, up 4.3%. The oil and gas explorer said production in the first quarter of the year was "marginally below expectations" due to the issues faced at the Jubilee field offshore Ghana, but said the field should resume production in a matter of days. The problems at Jubilee mean full-year production is "likely to be below current guidance" of 73,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil per day, and that guidance will be revised downward once the field is back up and running, the company said. Elsewhere, Tullow's major TEN development in Ghana remains on track and is over 90.0% completed, with first oil expected sometime in July or August this year.

NCC Group, up 2.3%. The cyber security company said revenue surged in the first 10 months of its financial year, helped by robust organic growth and acquisition contributions. NCC said revenue in the 10 months to the end of March grew 60% year-on-year to GBP166.1 million from GBP104.1 million. Organic growth contributed 21% of the rise, with the rest driven by the Fox-IT and Accumuli businesses NCC acquired in 2015. "This has been another period of strong and controlled revenue and profitable growth, organically and by acquisition," said Chief Executive Rob Cotton.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Victrex, down 7.8%. The polymer products company said it has entered into a consent decree with the US Federal Trade Commission concerning the inquiry into the sale and marketing of implantable grade PEEK polymer in the US by the group's Invibio subsidiaries. The consent decree will apply to all of Invibio's existing and future customer contracts, Victrex said, and means Invibio is unable to enter agreements or engage in practices that require its customers to purchase PEEK, a colourless thermoplastic polymer, exclusively at or beyond the device level from Invibio. Victrex said it does not expect the consent decree to have a material impact on its business.

Pendragon, down 3.0%. The car dealer said its full-year results are still expected to meet expectations after reporting a rise in profits across all of its three key divisions during the first quarter of 2016. Pendragon said its underlying pretax profit, which excludes certain items in order to measure the underlying performance of the business, was 8.7% higher in the first quarter of 2016 than a year earlier.

Ex-dividend stocks - Cobham, down 6.9%, Elementis, down 5.1% and Tullett Prebon, down 4.1%.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Avocet Mining, up 29%. The West Africa-focused company said production was higher in the first quarter of the year, whilst its cash costs came in considerably lower as the miner revealed its full-year guidance which suggests production should rise this year. The gold miner working the Inata mine in Burkina Faso said production in the first three months of 2015 totalled 20,528 ounces at a cash cost of USD925.0 per ounce compared to the 17,379 ounces produced in the final quarter of 2015 at the higher cash cost of USD1,094 per ounce.

WANdisco, up 24%. The Big Data and analytics company said it signed a non-exclusive original equipment manufacturer agreement with computing giant IBM. Under the agreement, IBM will sell WANdisco's Fusion data replication production as an IBM-branded component of the US group's storage and analytics products. WANdisco did not provide financial details on the agreement, but said it would receive a royalty on the Fusion component of IBM sales.

Prospex Oil & Gas, up 19%. The oil and gas firm said Hutton Poland, in which Prospex holds a 49% stake, has been formally awarded the Kolo licence in Poland. Prospex said it has been advised by Hutton that the Boleshaw prospect at the project is ready for drilling, with a location for the first drilling to be determined. The first well is set to be drilled in 2016, subject to environmental approval. "This will really allow the work on the ground to continue at a pace," said Prospex Chairman Bill Smith.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Herencia Resources, down 40%. The miner said Next Minerals has pulled out of a deal to buy the Picachos copper project in Chile, leaving Herencia close to running out of cash. Herencia struck a deal to sell the project to Next in February but faced opposition to the agreement from some shareholders. On Thursday, Next Minerals pulled out. Herencia said that if the Picachos licence option is not renewed, Herencia will lose all rights to the asset but will have enough working capital to last until the end of May. If the licence is renewed, Herencia will only have enough working capital to last until early May. The company said it has withheld the option payment as it "considers all options".
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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